Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - November/December 2019

In this issue

The November/December 2019 issue of EQMM is perfect for year-end reflection. Our Black Mask reprint (“Private War” by Roger Torrey) will have you thinking about the characters’—and perhaps your own—internal conflicts and motivations, as will “The Breakfast Club” by David Dean and “The Dutchy” by Doug Allyn, in which characters plumb the depths of their understanding of the “other side” of conflicts domestic and political.
Family dynamics and personal codes of justice rule the action in “A Little Happy Hunting” by Charlaine Harris, “Fiction Addiction” by Christine Poulson, “Fathers-in-Law” by Twist Phelan,” and “Wrangled” by Doug Crandell. But cautionary notes are supplied by “The Final Stage” by Ingrid Oonincx (Passport to Crime) and “The Beige Skirt” by Joseph Goodrich, which show where playing by your own rules can get you.
Willie Cuesta reflects on his Cuban roots while helping a client find freedom from the past in “The Underground Man” by John Lantigua, and Nell Drury, in Amy Myers’s “Death and the Donkeys” is just looking for a day at the beach when her keen observations compel her to help solve a murder.
Characters must find their bearings in more than one sense in the twisty “The Island” by Elizabeth Zelvin and “None Of This Is On the Map” by Richie Narvaez, in which a reluctant young P.I. confronts his own losses to address a case. Loss also figures in “Three Calendars” by Angelique Fawns (a first story) and “Stray Dogs” by Matt Coleman (Black Mask department), where survivors grapple with the never-ending fallout from the murder of loved ones.
Classic motives—jealousy and suspicion—are at the heart of “The Drawings” by A.M. Porter (a first story), “The Chess Room” by Elizabeth Elwood (a locked-room mystery), and “That Which We Call Patience” by Anna Scotti (a first-in-series whodunit).